A Close Encounter
by seriously.preoccupied
Summary: In the alternate universe, Rose receives a warning from the Doctor.


_This story may make very little sense. It literally came to me in a dream and I pretty much transposed it as I remember it. It takes place some time between "Doomsday" and "Journey's End."_

The creature would have been comical if he weren't so menacing. A great, stout, fat, blue fuzzy thing keeps appearing around the Doctor. Almost out of the corner of the Doctor's eye this thing repeatedly appears, hiding behind things, and popping out just to waggle his tongue at the Doctor before disappearing and reappearing elsewhere. It's been torturing the Doctor, menacing him. He seems to understand that this thing wants to bother him, get at him in the meanest possible way, and somehow he knows that the blue thing will do so indirectly, by going after what is most important to him in the world – Rose. He has to get through to the other universe somehow, to warn her, to help her, to save her.

…

_In the alternate universe_

Rose is helping her mother set up for an event at Tony's preschool. It's evening, There are lots of mothers milling about, setting out juice and snacks on tables with paper tablecloths. Rose is opening a particularly difficult jug of orange juice with a paper towel in her hand, wrapped around the lid. Suddenly the top gives way, and the jug is open, but she looks in the paper towel in her hand, and, impossibly, there is no lid there – it has just disappeared. Rose gets an eerie feeling that gives her goose-bumps, and her heart starts beating rapidly. She looks up, out the wall of windows that constitutes one side of the tiny gymnasium. Across the street is a billboard, wrapped around the corner of a building. Suddenly, completely imperceptively except to Rose, who knows to look, the Doctor's face appears, twice, once on each side of the billboard. He mouths words that only Rose would be able to understand, as if they were directly transmitted to her beating heart. "Run, run!… take everyone… go south… far as you can…" The image is gone in an instant, so that she might have thought it hadn't been there at all, if she hadn't been absolutely sure that it had been. She drops the open jug of orange juice on the floor.

Everyone stops their pleasant chatter to look at her in silence, including her mother. Without concern for anyone else, Rose grabs her mother and Tony, and dragging them to the door in a hurry, saying "we have to go."

They rush home, as Rose explains that she's had a message from the Doctor, they must pack and leave as soon as possible. The family is skeptical but they trust her, know she would not make up something like this. Mickey meets them at the house.

They dash up to her room to pack her things, but to their surprise, they find it completely trashed. Drawers and closet doors flung open, with clothes spilling out everywhere, onto the floor in piles, strung across the room. Following the chaos upward, they both look towards the ceiling at the same moment: the blue creature, tangled up in a polka-dot dress and other assorted pieces of clothing, hangs from the ceiling, grinning and laughing down at them. They scream, run out of the room, grab their family and go, immediately, leaving everything but what they'd already grabbed behind.

Pete takes them to an airplane hanger. Figuring that whatever the thing was could easily track them on a commercial flight, he has arranged for them to fly off secretly in a cargo plane. The whole trip, they feel uneasy – they get the eerie feeling that they're being watched.

After a very long trip, they arrive at the southern coast of New Zealand, at a house that Pete has rented for them. The house is in a cozy suburban neighborhood, right next to a park. They approach the modest one story house, but stop suddenly – through the bushes on one side of the house they can see movement. It's the blue creature, rooting around in the doorway to the basement cellar, pulling out electric wires, giggling maniacally. "Everyone stay back," Rose shouts. The blue thing comes running out and begins dancing in front of them, between them and the house – but Rose can't help but notice that it doesn't dance any closer… it keeps a certain distance, just running and dancing and waggling his tongue at them.

"Wait a minute…" Rose takes a step towards it and the blue thing flinches, jumping back, suddenly not so mirthful. Rose swipes her hand at him and he jumps away yelping. "He can't touch us! He's no threat to us at all!" She keeps swiping at him to prove her point, as he wimpers and shies away. "So, what, you're just a nuisance monster?" The blue thing nods with a bashful expression and sort of giggles, continuing to run about and dance, in an almost child-like manner.

…

A little while later, as the family gets settled in, Rose sits on a picnic bench in the park in front of the house, as the blue thing sits across from her. She wishes she could think of questions to ask it, but she can't. She just feels melancholy and worn, almost unsatisfied, from her near contact with the Doctor. "So what are you going to wear?" the blue monster asks her, bashfully but mischievously. "What?" Rose asks, completely confused. "Well, he thinks you're in danger. You know he'll do anything to protect you, you know he must be figuring out a way to come here… what'll you wear when you see him?" Rose just sits there, stunned speechless.


End file.
